Little Rock Marathon Cheater?

It also shows him running the last 6.2 miles in 16 minutes.

course turns into an out and back around mile 19/20

Obvious cheat is obvious.

Why do y'all do this snooping for free?

Someone should start a service for race directors. For a fee, run the results through a screening and give the director a report of who was definitely cheating and whose results might be suspicious.

Once you're set up, it'd be super quick. Charge the race a fee based on the number of finishers and make yourself a few hundred dollars every weekend.

Check the course profile...if he was a wheelchair athlete this seems right given the course profile.

He is not a w/c athlete, he is a chubby dude who ran in a full sweatsuit on a rainy day. Also, the course profile does not suggest that a w/c racer could travel at 9:45 pace for 20 miles and then close with a 16 minute final 10K.

If you actually look at the map, there is an out and back, but the mile 20 point is near the turnaround so cutting the that portion would result in no mile 20 split.

Furthermore, pictures show the guy crossing the line in 4:30, which is more in line with his pace for the first 20 miles of the race.

So, probably just a chip malfunction of some kind. The timing company should be notified so they can fix the error.

Sorry, but the verdict looks like there was no intentional cheating done.

Who cares about marathons where the winner can't even break 2:40? Please tell me you do something besides look for marathon cheaters all day; that would be pathetic.

Gerry K. wrote:

He is not a w/c athlete, he is a chubby dude who ran in a full sweatsuit on a rainy day. Also, the course profile does not suggest that a w/c racer could travel at 9:45 pace for 20 miles and then close with a 16 minute final 10K.

If you actually look at the map, there is an out and back, but the mile 20 point is near the turnaround so cutting the that portion would result in no mile 20 split.

Furthermore, pictures show the guy crossing the line in 4:30, which is more in line with his pace for the first 20 miles of the race.

So, probably just a chip malfunction of some kind. The timing company should be notified so they can fix the error.

Sorry, but the verdict looks like there was no intentional cheating done.

perhaps he doubled back. he made the 20 mile mat, then came back to cut the course.

either way, notify the RD

No way to cut the course if he hit the 20 mile mat. At most he could have taken a half mile off or so, nothing to allow him to run 10K in 16 minutes. He couldn't have cheated before the 20 mile point either since his pace for that section is not faster. Only way he deliberately cheated would be by car or bike, but there are pictures of him crossing the finish line in 4:30, which is about the time he should have finished given his pace up to 20 miles. So, likely a chip error somehow.

I suppose he could given the chip to someone else who then drove to the finish and got it across the mat in 3:30 then continued to run sans chip and finished in 4:30. Since pictures get identified/tagged by bib, not chip, he would still show up in the pictures as finishing in 4:30 but his chip would record an official time of 3:30. But it wouldn't really make sense to cheat that way because if anyone is suspicious of your splits and they look at your pics, it would be obvious that you finished in 4:30 so at best it would look like chip error rather than intentional cheating.

So, likely a chip error.

I didn't name the guy in this thread because I wasn't sure if he cheated or it was just an error. Looks like an error...the Little Rock Bibs had the chip imbedded in them, so he wouldn't have his bib on at the finish if somebody drove it there. Still, the guy shouldn't get a BQ because of a timing error.

They had a lot of chip issues on day of. I was trying to follow a few people and they basically were dropped off of results after the half. They finished, but it wasn't a smooth operation.

PDong wrote:

They had a lot of chip issues on day of. I was trying to follow a few people and they basically were dropped off of results after the half. They finished, but it wasn't a smooth operation.

Little rock marathon is always screwing up something. The half and 10k course bad overlapped this year and there was lots of chaos. poor course markings too. Two of the top three guys got lost amid madhouse and end up running over 14 miles and finishing out of the top three. all the race director cares about is having a big finisher medal and getting to dress up in costume. and due to the dock workers strike, the medals didn't even get there in time so they screwed up the one thing they care about. oh well they still got to dress up like pirates so all was good.

Ah, if the chips were on the bibs, then almost certainly a timing error.

wonder if the guy emailed the RD, or if he'll just "let it ride".

If he used it to BQ, if would be cheating in hindsight, or cheating by omission.

Someone follow up on this guy next fall, and let us know if he registers for the 2016 Boston marathon.

Art Garfunk-el wrote:

Little rock marathon is always screwing up something. The half and 10k course bad overlapped this year and there was lots of chaos. poor course markings too.

I had a really horrible experience with this. I had to focus on not bumping into 10k walkers instead of racing for the last two miles. I have had similar situations with 10k/5k or marathon/half, but nothing as bad as this one. I guess there were more walkers and the streets are narrower, and no one was directing the runners and walkers into separate lanes except for the finish.

I have run this race seven straight years, but I seriously consider not returning for the next year unless they change the course settings.

CoachJD wrote:

i can't figure out how the guy did it, but take a look at this guys result:

http://racesonline.com/events/littlerockmarathon/results/2015/2377/cat/div/age/gen

And look at his photos:

http://www.racephotonetwork.com/QPPlus/SearchBibNumber.aspx?_AccountNumber=13447&_EventID=1630062

He ran sub 7:00 second half if the results are correct, to get his BQ after opening with a 2:06 half. He hit all the check points though, but in the finishing photos he finishes with 4:30 marathoner?

You post these links, question if he is a cheat, and 15 seconds of investigation shows a photo of him crossing the line in 4:30ish and the two people in front of him (Jason and Amy Reed) finishing in 4:28.16. You don't just instantly think it's chip error? You post the mans name and first question if he cheated?

If you are actually a coach, CoachJD, I don't think there is much more people need to know about you, your work ethic and the kind of person you are.

CoachJD wrote:

I didn't name the guy in this thread because I wasn't sure if he cheated or it was just an error. Looks like an error...the Little Rock Bibs had the chip imbedded in them, so he wouldn't have his bib on at the finish if somebody drove it there. Still, the guy shouldn't get a BQ because of a timing error.

Posting a link to the mans name is posting his name. Only someone who just did what you did might think there is some difference.

It's still showing in the official results. So, if he wanted to have it changed, he certainly could have made a phone call/email, or whatever. Only reason I was suspicious was because the guy got a BQ out of the deal.

Running Formula reader wrote:

Art Garfunk-el wrote:

Little rock marathon is always screwing up something. The half and 10k course bad overlapped this year and there was lots of chaos. poor course markings too.

I had a really horrible experience with this. I had to focus on not bumping into 10k walkers instead of racing for the last two miles. I have had similar situations with 10k/5k or marathon/half, but nothing as bad as this one. I guess there were more walkers and the streets are narrower, and no one was directing the runners and walkers into separate lanes except for the finish.

I have run this race seven straight years, but I seriously consider not returning for the next year unless they change the course settings.

I emailed the RD about the congestion. Haven't heard back. I won't run it again if things don't change. Does the race really need a 10K option? Get rid of that and then maybe I would run the LR half next year.

And the marathon early starters were kinda in the way a bunch of times too. I guess the 6 hour time limit is not enough because they let a ton of people start two hours early. Gotta make sure the 8 hour folks can get the big medal.

CoachJD wrote:

It's still showing in the official results. So, if he wanted to have it changed, he certainly could have made a phone call/email, or whatever. Only reason I was suspicious was because the guy got a BQ out of the deal.

It's changed to 4:26.xx now.

However, this does not change the fact that you immediately assumed bad behavior on the part of the runner, that he cheated; or that if he didn't cheat, that he must have been aware of the error, despite a short time lapse, and, again, despite that short time lapse, he should have had the ability to have already corrected that error.

It's all part of the ugly "BQ" mania of far too many crap runners.